Lingua francas arise from the cost of translation between many tongues

Evidence

As the leading linguistic scholar Joshua Fishman has observed, a language is more likely to be accepted as a lingua franca or LWC if it is not identified with a particular ethnic group, religion, or ideology. In the past English had many of these identifications. More recently English has been “de-ethnicized (or minimally ethnicized)”as happened in the past with Akkadian, Aramaic, Greek, and Latin. “It is part of the relative good fortune of English as an additional language that neither its British nor its American fountainheads have been widely or deeply viewed in an ethnic or ideological context for the past quarter century or so” [Italics his]. The use of English for intercultural communication thus helps to maintain and, indeed, reinforces peoples’ separate cultural identities. Precisely because people want to preserve their own culture they use English to communicate with peoples of other cultures. — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 166 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Today, the dragoman has given way to the highly trained professional trans­ lator, a member of an immense and still rapidly growing profession. Despite the widespread use and understanding of a few major languages, translators are now more in demand than ever before. Bodies like the United Nations and the Eu­ ropean Union require that speeches and documents be translated into all the official languages. Sometimes even purely domestic speeches and documents must be translated, in countries with more than one official language. — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 199 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Shared language and culture lowered transaction costs in Turkish-Central Asian trade — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 397; A lingua franca succeeds by being detached from any single ethnic or ideological identity — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 166; Global linguistic convergence has increased rather than reduced translation demand. — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans: Interpreting…, 199 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• A lingua franca succeeds by being detached from any single ethnic or ideological identity #complicates (0.80) — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 166
• Global linguistic convergence has increased rather than reduced translation demand. #complicates (0.78) — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 199